Oppositional, immigrant and symbolic identities in the Moldova-Transdnistria conflict

The problem of ethnic minorities became the actual issue with the geopolitical transformations of 1989 which affected majoritarian ethnos and their concept of nation, affirmed in Europe as a counterbalance to central power, to imperial structures. The process of the (re)defining identity has a specific context in which inter-ethnic violence erupts. The difficult process of state-building in the case of the Republic of Moldova after the collapse of the Soviet Union is providing both motivation and opportunity for ethnic groups to mobilize as political actors. The project seeks to investigate regional diversity which defines separatist tendencies in the Republic of Moldova and has been the predominant feature of Moldova’s transition, state- and nation building, self identification practices and interpretations of Russian speaking population’ consciousness in the process of the Moldovan society consolidation. Geographically, Russian-speaking population is living mostly in the Eastern part of Moldova, the bulk of which constituted the Moldovan Autonomous SSR in the Ukrainian SSR during the interwar period. From the beginning of the military conflict in this region (1992), the Moldovan official discourse called this region “so-called ‘transdniestria moldavian republic’ (tmr)”). I will use the name of Transdniestrian region.

Title

Oppositional, immigrant and symbolic identities in the Moldova-Transdnistria conflict